Recycling of aluminum cans is a major source of aluminum for aluminum foundries, etc., and a major industry. One of the very important sources of aluminum is the recycling of soft drink and beer cans by consumers.
Many types of systems and devices are described in the patent and industrial literature for separating aluminum cans and other aluminum articles from ferrous metals, bottles, etc. Most of these devices are very large and are adapted for use only in recycling yards for processing tons of material per day.
Americans and people around the world are becoming increasingly aware of the need to recycle their waste products. Aluminum cans have significant economic value and many people sell their own used cans and collect cans from others for sale to recycling yards. Efforts have been made to provide recycling facilities in convenient locations, such as super markets and other places frequented by consumers.
Even though consumer recycling did not become popular until about two decades ago, the overall concepts of the technology have been thoroughly developed and many systems and devices have been designed to collect recycled products, separate the products, etc. Indeed, this is a crowded art.
Notwithstanding the many approaches to consumer recycling stations, there remains a great need for an attractive, simple, reliable and economically beneficial system for receiving recycled aluminum cans and for compensating consumers for their aluminum cans.
One of the major drawbacks to consumer recycling systems is that they are unsightly and, consequently, are relegated to back corners of parking lots and in other places which are hard to see and/or hard for the consumer to get to. Merchants, grocery store owners and managers and shopping mall managers, are not receptive to having recycling centers near the entrance to their business establishments because they occupy space that could be used for dispensing or selling goods or for other commercially profitable uses. It is a feature of this invention that a system is provided that enables the merchant to offer recycling services and to benefit from the presence of an aluminum can recycling center that is aesthetically attractive and, hence, can be conspicuously placed near the entrance to a store or mall.